Here we go again

I’ve just realised that I haven’t written anything on this blog since May, which is quite some gap, even for me. In truth, I found it hard to get too worked up about this season until it actually started. That’s partly because of the World Cup making a large dent in the summer, depriving me of my football detox; I find I need a couple of months away from the game before I can get excited about the new season.

Maybe another reason I haven’t felt the need to write anything over the summer is that all is relatively serene in the world of Watford. Hey, we’ve even got the same Head Coach as the last time I posted here. I know some people got their knickers in a twist about the lack of signings at centre back and centre forward in the transfer window, but I’m not too bothered. It’s good to see the club putting their faith in the players we have, and in Javi Gracia’s ability to get the most out of them.

There’s also welcome evidence of succession planning in the structure of the squad. It’s most obvious in the goalkeeping division, where Ben Foster has clearly been signed to finish his top-level career at Watford before handing over the gloves to the promising Pontus Dahlberg. Up front, too, it looks like the club is keen to groom Isaac Success (who’s hopefully learned from the Baileys and hookers incident) and Adalberto Peñaranda (can we just call him Bert?) for the day when Troy Deeney finally runs himself into the ground.

As for midfield, it doesn’t look as if Richarlison is going to be missed, for all that he’s set off like a steam train at Everton. Even without him, we’ve got Hughes, Delofeu, Capoue, Pereyra, Chalobah, Doucouré, Cleverley and Sema: when the injured players on that list are fit again, choosing just four from eight is going to be an unenviable task for Javi. I don’t think we’ve ever had such strength in depth.

So our near-perfect start to the season isn’t really that much of a surprise (okay, winning at Burnley is never a given, but I think we have the Europa League partly to thank for that), though the spectacular nature of the goals we’ve scored may be. Things are going to get a lot tougher, for sure, but there’s no reason to be frightened. Instead, I am now officially excited – excited to see what this squad can achieve this season.